Blackhawks’ Anton Frondell Among Six Prospects Named To Team Sweden
Top Chicago Blackhawks prospect Anton Frondell is set to head back overseas after joining Chicago for the final 12 games of the regular season. He will join Team Sweden at the 2026 World Championships set to take place in Switzerland per Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times. Frondell is one of six players named to Sweden’s roster who also played for the country in the 2026 World Junior Championship.
Also named to the Swedish roster are top draft prospects Ivar Stenberg and Viggo Bjorck, Philadelphia Flyers prospect Jack Berglund, St. Louis Blues prospect Love Harenstam, and Winnipeg Jets prospect Sascha Boumedienne.
Frondell could be a star addition to the Swedish roster. He scored 20 goals and 28 points through 43 games in Sweden’s SHL this season. It was a standout performance that led Djugardens IF in goals just one year after Frondell formed a dynamic duo with New York Islanders prospect Victor Eklund to help Djugardens earn a promotion from Sweden’s HockeyAllsvenskan. Frondell continued to prove his worth as a high-end scorer in his move to the NHL. He finished Chicago’s season with three goals and nine points. That is the highest per-game scoring in the NHL of any player on Sweden’s roster this season – though the Tre Kronor roster is younger than usual.
Usual batterymate, Eklund, may not be able to join Sweden in time to make the roster. He is set to play in the AHL’s Calder Cup Playoffs with the Bridgeport Islanders, where he has already racked up 10 points in nine games. Bridgeport faces a perennial Calder Cup threat in the first round – the Hershey Bears. That will make for a competitive series that could lead Eklund to the World Championships with an early exit – though the Islanders are a formidable lineup of their own with the additions of Eklund, Cole Eiserman, and Calum Ritchie
Frondell will likely line up on Sweden’s top-line alongside two of Stenberg, Bjorck, Jakob Silfverberg, Nils Hoglander, or Linus Karlsson. The latter two spent their seasons with the Vancouver Canucks and scored five and 35 points respectively. Canucks defense prospect Tom Willander was also invited to join Sweden’s roster but declined to focus on his off-season training per Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK News. Willander broke into a routine NHL role this season and finished the year with 21 points in 70 games.
Even with a young roster and rejections from some potential difference-makers, the Swedes will still enter the 2026 World Championship as favorites to earn a medal. Their top competition will be Team USA, Canada, Finland, and Czechia – as has become the case in recent years.